Without Eyes
by Ithilwen K-Bane
Summary: Compilation of IY Blind challenge responses. Includes "Two Tribes": Which world is Kagome's, really? Sometimes the question is more important than the answer. Includes "New Sky": Nothing lasts forever. That doesn't mean it's time to give up.
1. Two Tribes

This story takes place just before the final chapter of the manga. Kudos to Rumiko Takahashi and all her crew for giving us this fine story.

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It was after the choir trip. The bus had broken down and they'd all been stuck there until four in the morning. Most of the others had snuck off to some mischief after the chaperones had started to snore, but Kagome, Yuka and Hojo had all stayed on the bus, keeping each other awake by telling jokes and texting Eri and Ayumi about the sound the crickets made beside the road.

Time had passed and the stories had slowed. Ayumi was called away. Eri's answers had grown shorter and stopped. Yuka had closed her eyes for "just a minute." Kagome had yawned wide as a goose's egg, stretching both fists out to the misted windows.

Hojo had fallen asleep with his head on her shoulder.

It wasn't at all like the time Inuyasha had rested with his head in her lap, young Shippo, still a stranger at her shoulder, moving nervously at the sound of the spiderheads outside. For all that she could still touch the resting head with affection, it wasn't at all the same.

It was more like when she, Kaede and Sango would share the miko's small bed in the village in winter. Or like feeling Shippo circle down at the foot of her sleeping bag while Inuyasha pretended he wasn't watching over them from a nearby branch. Or Miroku, especially Miroku, on those nights he was too tired to grope or even joke with Sango before leaning his head back against Kirara and closing his eyes.

Miroku whom she loved but didn't love, couldn't trust but could.

She couldn't see Hojo's face in the shadows, but she could hear him breathing like a child. Now that all the sillier parts of herself had gone to sleep, now, she could just love him. Hojo, Yuka, Eri, Ayumi and the life they all had in this age. They weren't saving the world, but a person could just live in it and give each day some quiet meaning. They took their ordinary lives seriously, allowing Kagome to take hers seriously. They'd thought she was theirs, but it was only half true. They'd welcomed her into their tiny tribe without ever knowing that she walked with foreign secrets and she could admit, awake in the dark, that she loved them for it.

Even if saying it out loud would never do. Especially with Hojo. A boy like that, who'd adored her once. Over the years since the well had closed, his gifts and invitations had fallen off, but he'd always had a smile for her. Telling him that she loved him would be cruel.

Yuka slept with her throat open, neck bared to anyone who might swing open the door and step inside. She slept as if any danger in the world was far away and not looking for her. She slept like a girl without enemies. And Kagome remembered. She remembered that she, too, had no enemies here. In all the yawing emptiness of the road, the lights and the sounds of Japan at night.

There had never been a peace like this in the other world. There had been sweet mornings and moments of calm, but permeating all the blazing daylight, there was the knowledge that any of creature could attack at any time, tricked, corrupted, or made whole from his own body.

Kagome had never rested with a set of strange fingers brushing against the skin of her hip, never lain down with his arms around her waist or his kiss on her lips. Never had more than the scent of him or the thought of him pressed against her mind as the world slipped away.

But Naraku hadn't been dead then.

She'd sent him back to a world she hadn't known. More than anything, that was what kept her up at night. The sengoku jidai without a jewel, without Naraku, without a mission. She'd drawn friends around herself, around the both of them, but he was more than strong enough to push them back. In his pride or in his anger, he could push them back.

She trusted Miroku like she trusted the boy resting gently against her shoulder. Trusted Sango, sure as Yuka was stretched out on the seat across the aisle. Trusted Kaede like Eri's steady voice on the line. They wouldn't let Inuyasha throw himself away, not any more than the five of them would let Ayumi give up on journalism school, Hojo trip over his own naïveté, or Kagome give in to the restlessness of a woman half-lost.

She trusted them to try, even if success could not be certain.

Kagome touched Hojo's head, lightly, and listened to Yuka breathe as the night sky tightened around the windows.

It would have to do.

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This is a response to Patchcat's iy_blind community challenge for September 2008, "half-truth."

drf24 (at) columbia . edu


	2. New Sky

I have decided to stop posting all my IY-Blind entries as separate stories (even though they are).

"Two Tribes," "Captive Audience" and the first chapter of "Mountainside" were all first published for an _Inuyasha_ fan community called IY_Blind. IY_Blind was founded by some fans who were frustrated by challenge communities where the voting tended to turn into popularity contests. This is why all IY_Blind entries are 100% anonymous until the winners are announced.

Every month there is a new challenge, and the winner gets to pick the next month's, so if you want me or any other IY_B writer to do your bidding, get over to .com/iy_blind/ !

(At this point you probably think that this is all a ploy to bring more contestants, voters, readers and spectators to IY_Blind, but this is not true. You can send me cookies as well!)

The October 2010 challenge was, "Show me Shippo all grown up."

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Inuyasha and Shippo are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. Further disclaimers follow.

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"I told you this was a good idea. Just look at that sky."

"I'm more concerned with what's under it, runt," Inuyasha grunted.

Shippo and Ken exchanged a knowing look. Grunting meant that the half-demon approved. Grunting and destroying the supply pod with Tessaiga? That meant disapproval.

And it _was_ a good sky, because this _had_ been a good idea. The dusty, tan-streaked blue stretched from horizon to wide horizon like something out of one of the Old West movies that they'd played back in the twentieth. To the northwest, a sharp, craggy set of hills stabbed at a set of dirty white clouds. The plant life might have been scanty, barely enough to support the scabby, government-issue cow herds, but even that just brought out the rough-edged brand-newness of this place.

Inuyasha sniffed heavily as he walked down the gangplank, which squealed in protest. Shippo winced. It was a good thing this place looked promising. There was no way this heap was up to a return trip. It was almost a crime the way speculators took these old ships, barely spaceworthy, and patched them just enough to pack them clear to the titanium rafters with passengers for a one-way journey the hell out of dodge.

They'd let the other passengers disembark first, in part to get some privacy but mostly to let the stink disperse a bit. Eighty men, women and children stuffed into a space designed for a crew of five and light cargo got a little ripe after a three-month trip, especially when the showers had been taken out to make space for more fares.

Shippo closed his eyes. It wasn't Musashi, but then nothing was. Nothing ever would be again. He looked over his shoulder at Inuyasha. He half expected the grizzled old half-demon to say how fortunate it had been that she'd died long before seeing what her kind had done to the world she'd loved, but it had been years since he'd stopped saying it. "Would've broken her heart," he'd used to say. But not any more.

"We should send for the others right away, Inuyasha," Ken was saying. "The clan should not be separated this long."

"I will decide what is best for our clan, boy," answered Inuyasha. "And when we're alone, you are to call me 'Dad.' I don't care if you look older than me."

Ken rolled his eyes, just like he had when he'd been a teenaged warrior wannabe under Uncle Shippo's tutelage. That had been the high days of the Tokugawa. He'd learned enough to teach his yonger brothers their swordcraft—and a few kitsune tricks—just in time for the war to restore Emperor Meiji. The empire of the modern age, with its railroads and its dreams... That was when they'd all truly known that Kagome's magical homeland was really on its way.

But it hadn't only brought sweet snacks and clicking wheeled machines. The modern age had given them so much, and then it had taken away even more. The humans had conquered the world and then kept conquering it. The scent of miasma had been driven out by gasoline and nitrogen fertilizers. Little by little, the rolling forests were chopped down for farms, the great, aching freedom of the wild spaces was gone, gone and then more gone until the remaining demons found themselves shoulder to shoulder, even allied tribes going for each other's throats over living space.

It took a strong leader to keep a clan together, focused.

There was a reason why a kitsune boy had never gone back to live with his own kind. There was affection, to be sure, and gratitude, but the bottom line was that Shippo had always had an eye for self-protection. Inuyasha had grown into a leader of rare skill with Kagome by his side as they raised their horde of children. It had been their happy ending.

Only the story hadn't had the good grace to end. First Kaede, then Sango and Kagome and finally Miroku had succumbed to mortality. Inuyasha had not been destroyed. He'd had Ken and his other sons and daughters and—by then—his first two grandchildren, both Souta and Izayoi having married full-blooded inuyoukai. And he'd had Shippo.

Kouga's wolves had fallen to infighting, the wildness in their blood rising up and breaking out through their humanlike skins until they went for each other's throats. Shippo would have liked to think that the great wolf had lasted longer than most, but they'd found his den long empty, clawmarks worn smooth by years of rain.

The Birds of Paradise had abandoned their nests, soft feathers scattered to the wind.

Totosoi's forge had gone cold. There had been a set of ox tracks headed north, but they'd never found him.

Jinenji, on the other hand... Shippo and Ken's sister Sango had seen his body, gelatinous and black as pitch, seeping away into the stream that ran down the mountain where he and his human mother had once lived. That stream had flooded, raging hard every single year since, always leaving disease behind. The humans suffered through it. All the plants that could have cured them were dead.

Eventually, it had gotten too close for humans too, but rather than finally fight that nuclear war that had promised to save demonkind with its desolation and its body count, they'd simply built their great ships ...and left.

Every youkai with any sense had gone with them. The others...

Some demons had decided to stay on Earth once the humans packed up and moved out. The sun was still shining, they said, and the earth, the barren, brown earth might one day revive and grow tall plants again. The idea that youki essence could only be fed by the fear of a thinking being? A myth, a holdover from more barbarous times. The Dog Lord himself, the great leader Sesshoumaru, had ascribed to this belief. Shippo could see him now, withered Jaken at his side, great ruff over his shoulder as he watched his half-brother board a human ship with his followers. He'd called him a whipped dog, a prideless whelp.

They'd never heard from him again. There had been no messages from Earth-that-Was, not by the essence or the signal.

Shippo held in a shudder. He didn't know for sure; he didn't _want_ to.

The core planets had seemed like a good bet at first, they'd had the best terraforming, the most natural atmospheres and had imported the biggest number of plant and animal species from Earth, but a few decades on Xenon had made it clear that the super-regulated life of "true civilization" was no proper life for a kitsune and his clan of inuhanyou friends. A fox belonged out in the woods, regardless of whether those woods were made out of trees or five hundred acres of empty dust.

Inuyasha's boots crunched dry dust specked with gravel. Here and there some hardy weed waited for rain. He stopped, buckling his lip into the old-man scowl that had become his baseline expression.

"Dad?" asked Ken.

Shippo watched while Inuyasha removed his shoes, clicking ten clawed toes against the new earth. Slowly, he nodded.

"Good ground," he said. "I think we can stand it here."

Shippo smiled. "They say it gets better in time. They say that after a while, whole forests grow. Even if they don't, we'll still have that sky. No one can ever take that from us."

Inuyasha shot him a look with one hard amber eye. For a second, Shippo could see clear through to the soul that had lost more, in love and land, than any other being yet living.

"We'll see," muttered Inuyasha. "We'll see."

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drf24 columbia . edu

(_Firefly_ and its setting and characters were invented by Joss Whedon and his team.)

(There is a line from the film _The Interpreter_, "How could someone give us so much and then take away more?" That scene could have made the film by itself. The character was talking about a dictator, but it gets a person thinking.)


	3. Redemption

The challenge on this one was the word "redemption." I actually wrote this back in 2009, during NaNo, hence the references to TiVo and _Thurgood_. I'd been part of the IY fandom for a long time and it occurred to me that all the characters had too.

My apologies to Mr. Fishburn. He really was great on stage.

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"Last time, on _Redemption_..."

"Turn the volume up, will you?" asked Sango, setting the bowl of chips down on the coffee table.

"Sure, babe," answered Miroku. "Hey, are those the corn chips from last time, because you _know_ those give me—"

Sango rolled her eyes, "No, they're the regular ones, now shut up before we miss finding out who shot Ruth-Ann's long-lost identical triplet!"

"No we won't. I freaking TiVoed it," snapped Miroku, shaking his head as Sango sat down next to him on the couch. He draped his arm over her shoulder as she half-reclined, touching her temple against the rough cloth of his sweatshirt.

But as the previews finished, Miroku started to get a funny feeling, a very familiar funny feeling.

"Uh, honey?"

"Damn, I thought it was my imagination," Sango answered, putting one hand over her eyes.

Miroku sighed. "Only one thing for it," he said, sliding his hand down off her shoulder.

"_You!_" Sango reared back and slapped him. Her eyes slid shut as her jaw set, "We're back on duty."

"We should call them," offered Miroku.

Sango shook her head, "No, they'll be back any minute anyway." She turned on her heel and Miroku could hear her rifling through the suitcases. His kesa hit him in the back of the neck.

"Hey!" he protested, "Don't hate the _player_, baby!"

"Shut up and get ready to go," Sango hissed, slipping off her sweatpants and pulling her yukata around her waist.

"Here, let me," said Miroku, tugging the garment straight.

"Thanks," Sango muttered angrily. "We were _supposed_ to—"

They both turned around at the sound of a key card in the lock.

"Hey! Do not disturb! There's a beautiful naked body in here!" Miroku shouted. Sango smacked him. "Okay, _two_ beautiful naked bodies."

"Hey Miroku," said Kagome, slipping out of her high heels.

"I'm so disappointed," Inuyasha was saying. "All the reviews say it's amazing: go see Lawrence Fishburne in 'Thurgood'! Straight from Broadway!"

"Uh, guys?" interrupted Miroku as he slipped his kesa over his head.

"Oh can't you just sit back and enjoy the spectacle, Inuyasha?" Kagome chided gently, laying her wrap across the back of the kitchenette chair. "You know Broadway style. Even if the play isn't wonderful, the _stagecraft's_ usually good."

"The stagecraft sucked donkeybutt!" snapped Inuyasha. "When Royal Shakespeare Company came to Tokyo, now _that_ was some badass stagecraft! I swear, you thought you were in a medieval forest full of goddamned fireflies. He wrapped one clawed hand around her waist, "It was giving me flashbacks, as you _well_ remember!"

"Inu_yash_a, we're not alone!" Kagome giggled.

"We weren't then either! I swear, if fucking Kagura hadn't shown up with that cadre of wind corpses—"

"_Honey_! " she protested.

"Just a minute ago you were saying you wanted to get out of that pantyhose..."

"Guys!" Miroku jumped in.

"Oh fucking hell, Miroku," said Inuyasha. "You guys said you didn't want to go, so we didn't get you tickets, and the show sucked anyway, so don't bitch me out about it n—"

Miroku wondered if he'd looked quite that stupid when it had hit him. He suspected that he had.

"Oh no," sighed Kagome.

Inuyasha was shaking his head, "Weren't they supposed to all be doing that NeeNo thing?"

"NaNo," corrected Miroku. "That's where they take the whole month of November and try to write a—"

"I know what it is!" said Inuyasha. "Fuckdammit!"

"We were _supposed_ to have the month off," seethed Sango.

Miroku nodded, "You and Kagome go and catch a little theater, Sango and I catch up on our stories..." he sighed, tying his sash in place. "Well, duty calls."

"Where are my clothes..." muttered Inuyasha. "Honey, did you put my clothes in the duffel or in the suitcase?"

"In the suitcase," said Kagome, "but don't change out of your street gear yet. Someone's got to go get Shippo." She turned toward Miroku, "Where is Shippo? I thought he was going to be watching the soaps with you guys?"

Sango took a step closer. "And I thought that he was out kitty-sitting," she said coldly.

Miroku looked away.

"You didn't," said Kagome. "Miroku, you were supposed to watch him!"

"He's a fifth-level kitsune trainee, Kagome, _and_ he's been watching himself just fine for some time now."

Kagome snatched her wrap up from the chair and threw it at his head and Sango followed up with a whack. "Do you mean to tell me, my love," said Sango, "that you told Shippo he could go to Ginza today?"

"Oh," Inuyasha put both hands on his head. "Miroku, you moron! What if he gets his fluffy ass arrested? What are we supposed to say? 'Sorry, Shippo's not in this fanfiction because he got cuffed for scamming tourists at three-card monty'?"

Miroku shrugged, "At least it's original."

"Oh God," muttered Inuyasha. "I swear, if he's not on his usual streetcorner, then I am having him lojacked like a freakin' pedigree Shih Tzu." He leaned over and gave Kagome a terse peck on the cheek, "Back in a bit, babe."

Kagome sighed lightly as the door closed behind him.

"Back to teenaged histrionics..." said Sango, shaking her head. "When will the fanauthors realize that we've known each other for twelve whole years?"

"I don't know," Kagome answered with a twinkle in her eye, "sometimes starting over from the beginning has its excitement."

Miroku gave a snort, "Oh, Kagome," he teased, "your sex life has had more _beginnings_ than a frustrated novelist." He didn't even try to duck the slap.

"By the way," Sango changed the subject, hands on her hips. "If Kirara isn't getting cat-sat by Shippo, then where might she be?"

"Don't worry, darling," answered Miroku. "She's perfectly safe."

"I don't have my answer yet, my love."

"She is on loan to the Ueno Zoo," Miroku replied with aplomb.

Sango blinked, "She's what?"

Kagome looked up from where she was shaking out her school uniform. "Oh this I've got to hear!"

Miroku chuckled slyly, "I _happened_ to have a video camera and one of the senior aides to a certain ambassador just _happened_ to be engaging in a certain indiscretion. One thing led to another and now the rugrats are lining up to see the ultra-rare Argentinian leaf cat, on loan from Buenos Aires via the sengoku jidai."

"Kirara is a zoo exhibit?" demanded Sango.

"And nobody noticed that it's pronounced 'Argentine'?" asked Kagome.

"Kirara is having the _time of her life_," Miroku said in his most assuring tone. "And how do you think we've been watching _Redemption_ on a fifty-inch flatscreen? That shit did _not_ come with the room! Which reminds me," he pulled out his iPhone. "I've got to arrange to have that bad boy shipped out of here before it falls off the back of a truck..."

"Oh, Miroku!" sighed Sango.

The lock clicked again and a familiar pair of feet stomped in. "—don't _care_ how much cash you made, kiddo, you _know_ we only brought you along because you promised to behave—"

"Put me down you big fat corporate drone!" yelled Shippo, all four limbs flailing as Inuyasha held his tail in his fist.

"—yourself and this is why we never get invited back to any _nice_ universes and if you think I'm a corporate drone just because I wore a suit to a crappy play, then I am going to sting your ass until you can't sit down—"

"Kagome, he's being mean to me!"

"—oh no you don't, Shippo. We had this talk and Kagome and I _both_ decided not to spoil you any—"

"I don't wanna go back yet! I was just getting _good_."

"—more. And part of that is going back to work when people need you." He plopped Shippo down on the coffee table, probably harder than he needed to. "Now get dressed."

"Hey, chips!" Shippo brightened and started to eat.

Inuyasha sighed, "You are lucky I can run in these damned loafers, kid. I got there _two_ seconds before you got made. That guy was an undercover cop or I'll eat Miroku's undershorts."

"Ewwwwwwwwww!" squealed Shippo between mouthfuls.

"Is everybody ready to go?" asked Kagome.

"In a minute," said Inuyasha. "I need to change clothes."

"Hang on," Miroku clicked his phone shut. "Kirara will be meeting us in twenty minutes. Now let me find that two hundred K in cash I stashed around here someplace..."

"Always a scam," remarked Inuyasha.

Kagome stepped up behind him and put her hands on his upper arms, kissing the back of his head. "There's always next year," she said gently.

"Guess so," he answered.

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drf24 at columbia dot edu


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